BEING taken ill while away from home is something every traveller dreads.

The lack of control and lack of familiarity regarding your circumstances and surroundings merely adds to the stress and anxiety being suffered by you and your loved ones.

So imagine how you would feel if, having become very ill on a flight home, you were left stranded after an emergency landing – having not even been told which country you were in.

This is what happened to Liverpool couple Paul Ryans and Julia Concasola, after Paul suffered a suspected heart attack on an easyJet flight.

Paul was returning home from Lanzarote with his fiancée when he began falling in and out of consciousness. It was later discovered he had been suffering from high blood pressure.

To their great credit, the staff on board did all they could to stabilise Paul, although he was not responding. Then, again to the credit of those on board, the decision was taken to make an emergency landing.

But this was where easyJet made their excuses and left – literally.

Paul and Julia were left high and dry in Morocco – not that they initially knew where the hell they were.

The low cost airline has pointed out its duty of care ends once the traveller has departed from the flight. That, technically and legally, might be the case, but surely they owe their customers a little more than that.

This goes for every company that deals with the general public, whatever its size and ways of operating.

There should be no exceptions – low cost shouldn’t mean we have to expect low levels of courtesy or common sense.